A Southwest Airlines flight dropped several hundred feet in a matter of seconds to avoid a midair collision, after the Federal Aviation Administration said pilots were alerted to another aircraft’s presence in the area.

Southwest Flight 1496 was en route Friday to Las Vegas from Hollywood Burbank Airport when just six minutes after takeoff, the aircraft took a nearly 500 foot plunge to comply with traffic alerts issued to the pilots.

  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
    3·
    21 days ago

    The planes were no closer than 4.85 miles apart. They were on nearly parallel, but opposing tracks, almost 5 miles apart. They were not on anything remotely close to a collision course. The TCAS alert was because the two aircraft slightly encroached on separation requirements of 5 miles lateral, or 1000 feet vertical.

    The pilot does need to react immediately to TCAS alerts, and it is certainly better to react excessively than insufficiently. But, he might have been a little… enthusiastic with this maneuver.